HUN Chapter 29: Harvest After Testing Arrows

Over the following days, aside from collecting winter fuel, Lin Yu'an devoted almost all his time to archery practice and exploring the surrounding environment.

His five newly made beaver bone arrows had developed a feel that surpassed his metal-headed hunting arrows.

Through his recent intensive archery practice, he keenly sensed that his shooting condition was entirely different from before.

His vision was like a polished lens, with distant details clearly visible! His distance judgment was as precise as having a built-in rangefinder.

Today Lin Yu'an planned to venture a bit farther to try his luck.

The sunlight was perfect, with no wind stirring, making it an ideal time for hunting.

"Folks, after several days of adaptive practice, I've developed excellent feel for these new bone arrows," Lin Yu'an said as he shouldered his quiver containing three of his most satisfactory beaver bone practice arrows and six metal-headed hunting arrows, gripping his 50-pound American hunting bow.

"Today we won't be shooting grass targets. We're going to test these new arrows' power in real combat at a more distant location. Hopefully we'll have some success."

He walked upstream along the creek. With his enhanced perception, he could catch many subtle sounds in the forest.

The rustling of wind through needles, distant wood pigeon calls, even the soft sounds of small animals moving through underbrush.

After walking for nearly two hours, at the edge of a spruce woodland, he suddenly stopped and listened intently.

"Coo-coo... coo-coo-coo..."

A familiar, rhythmic call came from behind nearby shrubs!

"Grouse!"

Lin Yu'an's eyes instantly lit up. Lowering his voice, he said to the camera, "From that sound, there's more than one!"

He drew a beaver bone arrow from his quiver and gently nocked it on the bowstring.

Though these bone arrows weren't as sharp as metal arrowheads, Lin Yu'an was feeling confident with them and wanted to test their power.

For grouse, which were not large birds with low defense, these arrows would be deadly enough if they hit.

Rather than going directly through the shrubs, he first observed the surrounding terrain. The shrub patch was quite dense, and approaching directly would easily startle his prey.

"This is when we need a little strategy."

A confident smile curved Lin Yu'an's lips.

He picked up several small stones from the ground, then silently circled to the side-rear of the shrubs, estimating the distance.

Suddenly he hurled one of the stones forcefully toward the far side of the shrubs, away from himself!

"Plop!" The stone landed on distant fallen leaves with a soft sound.

Almost simultaneously, the grouse calls from within the shrubs paused.

Then two gray-brown, plump spruce grouse were indeed attracted by the disturbance, cautiously poking their heads out and looking toward where the stone had landed!

They completely failed to notice that Lin Yu'an, positioned at their side-rear, had slowly drawn his bowstring.

Lin Yu'an's attention was incredibly focused. Using his "sixth sense," he precisely predicted one grouse's body position by tracking its head movements.

"Whoosh!"

The beaver bone arrow left the string with a slight whistling sound, flying accurately over ten meters!

"Thud!"

A muffled impact!

The bone arrow struck true, hitting the grouse squarely! The tremendous impact carried it forward several stumbling steps. It let out mournful cries before collapsing with flapping wings.

The other grouse was startled by this sudden turn of events, letting out a panicked "coo" and about to take flight—

But Lin Yu'an's movements were faster!

Almost as the first arrow was released, his left hand had already lightning-fast drawn the second beaver bone arrow from his quiver!

He completed nocking, drawing, and aiming in flowing motion, as if he'd practiced this sequence thousands of times!

"Whoosh!"

The second arrow followed immediately!

The grouse that had just spread its wings and was barely half a meter off the ground suddenly jerked in mid-air, then fell straight down as if grabbed by an invisible hand!

The second bone arrow had accurately struck its body!

Two arrows in succession, both hits!

"Nice!" Lin Yu'an strode forward.

He first checked the first grouse. The bone arrowhead had penetrated deeply into its neck, killing it instantly.

Then he went to the second grouse. The situation was similar, the bone arrow had entered through its chest and abdomen, also a fatal wound.

This grouse was slightly smaller, its feathers showing a soft luster in the sunlight. Particularly the neck and chest feathers displayed a faint metallic blue-green color at certain angles, quite beautiful.

Lin Yu'an picked up one plump grouse in each hand, showing them off proudly to the camera.

"Two arrows, two grouse! My homemade beaver bone arrows, combined with my archery skills, pack quite a punch!"

"I feel terrifyingly strong right now! Who else wants some!"

"It looks like these were two grouse in love. Sorry to interrupt your romance."

He tied the two grouse together with vines and hung them at his waist.

"Now dinner will be sumptuous! With the clay pot, I can make grouse soup! My mouth is watering just thinking about it."

As Lin Yu'an walked back, he shared his hunting insights with the camera.

"Actually, for dealing with small prey that aren't particularly alert, you can totally use some tricks."

"Like how I used stones to distract and attract their attention, success rates improve dramatically. Of course, the prerequisite is that your archery skills must be up to par."

Back at the shelter, Lin Yu'an placed the two heavy grouse on a clean, flat stone slab and began his long-anticipated "culinary creation."

He first processed the first grouse, carefully plucking it and removing the organs. He didn't discard the organs but planned to save them for other uses.

Then he broke down the grouse into several large pieces and some scattered meat chunks, taking out his fired small clay pot.

"I'll use this to stew a pot of delicious grouse and Jerusalem artichoke soup!"

He placed the chicken pieces in the clay pot, added sufficient stream water, then selected several Jerusalem artichokes from storage, peeled them, cut them into irregular chunks, and added them to the pot as well.

Secretly adding some concentrated chicken broth from his space storage and minced ginger to remove gaminess.

Finally, openly adding a small handful of salt and previously gathered and dried wild berries.

The clay pot sat steadily on the round opening at the stove mouth, with flames from the combustion chamber below directly heating the pot bottom.

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